Monday, December 16, 2013

Guest Post by Andy Remic

Well, it's
Monday, but here's something that hopefully will take some of the sting off. A
Guest Post from author Andy Remic, talking about his new book from Angry Robot,
The Iron Wolves. If you've been reading this blog for a while then you know that
I really liked Andy's Clockwork Vampire Trilogy, so now that he has a new
series, I'm looking forward to giving it a try. The book will be available as of
Dec 31st.

Andy's giving a
Blog Tour to help promote the book. When Caroline Lambe At angry Robot asked
what I'd like Andy to talk about on his stop at Singular Points, I suggested he
tell us a bit about his influences as a writer. So here's Andy Remic.

My influences have been
far and wide ranging, from novels to films, music and real life people – my dad
included. :-) From a very early age I
was inspired to write by Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and C. S. Lewis – whom I
admired for their rollicking adventures and creepy mysteries. I then moved on
to the Great Tolkien – who dropped me headlong into Middle Earth and gave me
a love of fantasy which inspired me beyond words. Because of Tolkien I sought
out other fantasy authors, namely Raymond E. Feist, Michael Moorcock and then
Terry Pratchett, Peter Morwood and David Gemmell – whom I’ve cited previously
as being a massive influence. I read Iain Banks for mainstream, and his SF
for high adventure. All of these authors went into the gestation pot inside
my skull, and then my literature degree opened up a much wider world of
fiction, from Hemingway to Suskind, Orwell to Gide.

However, for fantasy I
always went back to Gemmell, may
he rest well in the Hall of Heroes; and in my new novel - The Iron Wolves - amidst
the chaos of many nasty, evil characters, Kiki, leader of the Wolves, a
honey-leaf drug peddler and addicted to her own foul narcotic; Narnok, a
violent whoremaster with a razor-sliced face; Prince Zastarte, a decadent gambler
who burns people alive; Dek, a nasty, thug-like pit fighter; and Trista,
originally a woman of wealth, nobility and religion, who has devolved into an
assassin who kills married couples on their wedding night – so that their
love can never die – well, it was Dave nagging me in the back of my mind to
create the honourable, noble General Dalgoran whom must pull all these bad
people together and seek to find them some kind of redemption. So yes. I am
still influenced by those early fantasy authors whom inspired me.

Nowadays, after fifteen novels, I
think my writing is very much my own. I am locked into my own style and I
enjoy writing in my own little worlds, and try my best to deliver high-action
and diverse entertainment for the reader. Ideas and concepts can still influence
me, as can people, conversations, dreams and memories, but then that’s how
all writers, film makers, musicians, artists etc work. Life is an
inspiration. :-)

Finally, if any nice
reviewers out there review the book and post it to a blog/review site,
they’re eligible for the “Wolf Pack” (geddit? heh) – a little pack containing
an Iron Wolves t-shirt, 3 x book marks, a signed author photo and a lolly
pop.